Berthold Leibinger Fellow - Class of Fall 2012

Hans R. Vaget is Helen & Laura Shedd Professor Emeritus of German Studies at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. He received his academic training at the universities of Munich and Tübingen, the University of Wales in Cardiff, and at Columbia University. He has published widely in the field of German Studies from the eighteenth century to the present, focusing primarily on Goethe, Wagner, and Thomas Mann. Vaget has taught at the University of California, Irvine; Yale University; Columbia University; Princeton University; the University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Middlebury College; and the University of Hamburg. He is co-founder of the Goethe Society of North America and its former president. He is also one of the editors of wagnerspectrum, a journal of Wagner Studies. A recipient of the Thomas Mann Medal for his edition of the correspondence of Mann with his American benefactor, Agnes E. Meyer, Vaget is also one of the chief editors of the new complete edition of the works, letters, and diaries of Thomas Mann. Among his recent publications are Thomas Mann, der Amerikaner: Leben und Werk im amerikanischen Exil, 1938-1952 (S. Fischer, 2011); Thomas Mann, Briefe, vol. III: 1924 – 1932 (S. Fischer, 2011), as a co-editor; Im Schatten Wagners. Thomas Mann über Richard Wagner. Texte und Zeugnisse (S. Fischer, 3rd. ed. 2010); Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain—A Casebook in Criticism (Oxford University Press, 2008); and Seelenzauber—Thomas Mann und die Musik (S. Fischer, 2006).

Project Description

Thomas Mann in Exile: The American Years, 1938-1952

At the American Academy in Berlin, Vaget will further explore the life and works of Thomas Mann during the fourteen years (1938-1952) he spent as exile in the United States. Based on all available evidence, this book will be the first in-depth study of Mann’s American years. It will shed new light on his relationship to President Roosevelt, on his efforts to convince isolationist America of the necessity of going to war, on his rivalry with other German exiles (notably Brecht), and on his growing disillusionment with Germany even after the war. Vaget’s arguments will be based on his re-readings of Mann’s extensive political commentary and of the chief literary works of the period, most notably Joseph, the Provider and Doctor Faustus.